Exploring "one of the grand sentinels of the North Cascades."
The story of an epic, week-long alpine traverse in the Chilliwack River Valley
Written by Cam Fenton. Photos by Sam Waddington in the North Cascades.
Most people who visit the Fraser Valley remember Mount Cheam. Called Lhílheqey in Halq’eméylem, its triangular summit towers over the TransCanada highway, marking the boundary between mountains and valley. But for climbers, there’s another peak just south of Cheam that’s the true jewel of the Chilliwack River Valley; Mount Slesse.
Officially named on October 6, 1936. Its modern moniker is a lasting English mispronunciation of Selísi, a Halq’eméylem word meaning ‘fang’. It’s a perfect description of the peak, a spire of stone forged by the Pemberton Volcanic Belt twenty-six to twenty-nine million years ago. It juts from the ridgeline towards the sky, looking like the petrified tooth of some mythic beast.
The first recorded ascent of Slesse was in 1927, but it was Fred Beckey, Steve Marts and Eric Bjornstad’s 1963 climb of the Northeast Buttress that put it on the map. The route was included in 1979’s Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and the third volume of Beckey’s iconic Cascade Alpine Guide. In it, he describes the peak as “one of the grand sentinels of the North Cascades”. The Northeast Buttress, Beckey writes, is “one of the greatest rock pillars carved by the forces of nature in western North America”.
It’s no surprise that climbers have flocked to its flanks ever since. There have been new routes and different styles of ascents. But last summer, two local climbers – Greg Luesink and Ben Hall – put their own spin on Slesse; an epic multi-day trip linking the Slesse massif with its eastern neighbour, a craggy ridgeline called the Illusion-Nesakwatch-Rexford Group.
The Rexford-Slesse Horseshoe
Hall first heard about connecting the two ridgelines from his friend Nic. They were in the middle of another trip, linking up the Nesakwatch spires with Mount Rexford. Nic, Hall explained, had just finished an outdoor leadership course on Vancouver Island.
“When his instructor found out that he was from Chilliwack, he [showed] him this traverse that had apparently not been linked up yet,” Hall said. “From the summit of Rexford, the entire route is quite visible, so the idea of doing it one day stuck with me”.
He shared the idea with Luesink, who quickly saw its potential.
“Looking on a map, it's a pretty obvious 'U' of continuous ridge, which is a big part of why it is so inspiring,” he said.
Luesink explained that he and Hall scouted “smaller sections” of the route from 2022 to 2025. They dug into “guidebooks, photos [and] blogs” to help their planning. They also spoke with Drew Brayshaw, a local climber whom Luesink called their “local mountain encyclopedia”.
Eventually, a plan came together. Luesink described the route as crossing “25 summits connected along a continuous horseshoe-shaped ridge”. He broke the route down “into 4 smaller traverses: The Grand Ensakwatch Enchainment, the Silesia Traverse, the Slesse Massif Traverse, and the Slesse to Pierce Traverse”.
At that point, Luesink explained, “no one had ever linked all 25 summits in a single push”.
Hall remembered feeling some “alpine nerves” as they started their attempt on August 19, 2025.
“I had been backpack guiding for the whole summer, so I hadn't done much climbing, and hadn't climbed in the alpine at all that season,” he said. “It took a few pitches and rappels to feel like I was in the groove again.”
Once they hit that groove, it was game on.
“There are several physical cruxes along the way, with 20 pitches ranging from 5.6 to 5.9,” Luesink said. “[They] are a lot harder with overnight packs than they appear on paper”.
They spent nearly a week on the route, 118 hours as Luesink recorded. A feat that was only possible thanks to the three bags full of food and water that he had dropped ahead of the trip.
“This required meticulously planning the contents and location of each bag, which I hiked in with the help of friends ten days before our trip,” said Luesink.
Not having to carry all their food and water helped Luesink and Hall move efficiently through challenging sections, such as the Slesse Massif. Luesink described it as “intimidating, time-consuming, and technical”.
“Even with this section scouted, it was still the biggest crux,” he added.
Hall agreed, calling the Slesse section “a great alpine adventure”. He did add a warning for anyone considering it, though: “chossy and difficult to protect in places.”
Looking back on the trip, Luesink said the most rewarding part was “sharing the experience with Ben and executing our plan nearly perfectly”.
“It was especially gratifying as we had been thinking about it for three years, scouting, attempting, failing, scouting some more, and then finally pulling off,” he added. “Standing on Mt. Pierce, the last summit, we both found it hard to believe what we'd just done.”
While the summits may be completed, Luesink is just getting started telling the story. He’s created a film about the trip, premiering on April 14th at Mount Waddington Outdoors’ flagship store in downtown Chilliwack. For those unable to make it, both the film and a detailed trip report will also be available on Luesink’s website Wackyard Adventures.
A New Guide to Cascade Climbing
The good news for most people is that you don’t need to spend 118 hours crossing 25 summits to have an epic adventure on Slesse, Rexford or any of the nearby peaks. And if you’re looking for beta, the new, second edition of Cascade Rock is a good place to start.
The pages are packed with more than 200 routes. And while most of them are south of the 49th parallel, the Canadian North Cascades section is packed with information.
“There are 20-30, depending on how one counts variations, new routes throughout the book, all of which are excellent,” explained author Blake Herrington. “Some of these are in BC, [in the] Rexford and Nesakwatch group.”
As Herrington explained, the new edition also reflects “how people use modern guidebooks, which is in connection with their smartphones”.
He added scannable QR codes that link Google map directions to trailheads. Others take the reader to “expanded resources like videos, interviews, etc…”
“With the improvement in software, I drew from scratch every topo in the book using Adobe Illustrator, allowing more accurate scaling of terrain and better details such as pitch and rappel lengths, and gear,” Herrington explained. “Each topo also includes a summarized descent instruction, again because most people will simply photo the topo page and pull out their phones on route.”
Copies of the new edition are in stock at all Mount Waddington locations and available for purchase online. If you’re looking for more beta for climbing and mountaineering in the region, make sure to check out Fred Beckey’s Cascade Alpine Guide: Volume 3, Rainy Pass to Fraser River and The Fraser Valley Climbing Guide.
